Meet Elle Purrier St. Pierre, Vermont Olympian and Dairy Farmer

Hi, I'm Ellie, Ellie, here she comes and that beef record could be in jeopardy by 19.89. She made a new American record for Ellie. I grew up in northern Vermont and went to the University of New Hampshire for four years. Now I am a professional runner. for New Balance when I was in high school, I really loved basketball. I played basketball all four years of high school before that, skied, played soccer and softball. I loved all the different sports, but I feel like through those sports I found running, but one. The coach in particular convinced me to try out for the track team and he never looked back.

It's a passion and it's what I love to do now. He has given me some of my best friends. Now I can be on this team. some of the best runners in the world and we make each other better, you know, yes we are competitive, but we know deep down we love each other and we are best friends, we just push each other every day. I also had another one. coach in high school who was a history teacher at Richford has definitely been a great mentor to me. I still talk to him very often. He is really the one who helped me fall in love with the sport and helped me find a lot of similarities between running. and farming, that's how it helped me transition, you know, to being a runner, cows need to be milked every day and twice a day, at least usually three times and yeah, very similar to running, where I have to train every day, definitely, the long days.

It's a very different type of tired on the farm than being tired on the track, but God, I really don't know what's harder when I'm not farming, when I'm not a racer, my husband and I love to drive. all the back roads of Vermont and enjoy the views and the scenery and really appreciate where we live. All the viewing parties when I was in Tokyo were completely amazing to listen to and watch videos of. I felt so much love when I was in Tokyo, on the other side of the world and I still felt all the support from here and that just meant that I was running for them, not just for myself, I was running for my family and all of Vermont, and that meant a lot to my.

I had all that support. Can you imagine living anywhere other than Vermont? No, no, I love it here. I love Vermont. I'm so rooted here and until I left I didn't realize how truly rooted I am here and yes, that's where. my family is where my ancestors have been and it's where I love growing up on a farm it was just a lifestyle you know it was a lot of long days but with a lot of love and passion he got to work on the farm and I learned a lot of life lessons growing up on the farm, I definitely learned to work hard and that has been a big advantage for me in my running career now, but I think I also learned to be resilient.

Dairy farming is the backbone of our state and our rural communities and is a great way to grow. I really hope it stays here and that the kids continue to have the opportunities that I had growing up on a farm because it's a great lifestyle that offers a lot. for everyone involved and it's beautiful and it's part of our culture here, so you've been to the Olympics, you've broken American records, you have a ton of accomplishments, what do you have in your next set of goals? I will be negotiating for Paris 2024 and there are world championships in between and I hope for a medal, that is the next goal.